"Given the lack of transparency over intelligence operations, we can't go on the word of agency officials that everything is fine," said one official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. "There needs to be a neutral and outside review of what's going on."

"Four directors went to the IG," the inspector general quoted Mashiko as saying to a senior officer. "I would like to find them and fire them."

I wish I could say I was surprised at this.....

*sigh*

when you remove oversight from military organizations (specifically - intelligence operations) as we did when we started this whole 'war on terror' thing, you are going to get people who abuse their authority.

Weaver95:BillCo: Just more proof that the agencies under the Obama administration are out of control.

Obama passed the Patriot Act...? wow. I didn't know he had a time machine.

Weav, you old dog. I knew you were an ultra lefty liberal, but I didn't realize until now that you are also obtuse. I was referring to the complete lack of leadership that Obama has displayed to the agencies under him. This is just one more example of weak leadership.

But then, what can you expect from a community organizer with no real experience.

Consider this: General Mashiko is in charge of the organization that is tasked with preventing the next Pearl Harbor, and she is of Japanese descent.

She was commissioned as a butter bar back in 1980, and assuming she was 22 years old at the time, she'd have been born sometime around 1958. That means it's entirely possible that her parents spent time in an internment camp.

BillCo:Weaver95: BillCo: Just more proof that the agencies under the Obama administration are out of control.

Obama passed the Patriot Act...? wow. I didn't know he had a time machine.

Weav, you old dog. I knew you were an ultra lefty liberal, but I didn't realize until now that you are also obtuse. I was referring to the complete lack of leadership that Obama has displayed to the agencies under him. This is just one more example of weak leadership.

But then, what can you expect from a community organizer with no real experience.

do you understand just how BIG our military is these days? just how many intelligence operations we've got running at any given time? i'm not sure one guy can keep track of that anymore. Not to mention the fact that I"m pretty sure that the military isn't always honest with the administration about what they're up to at any given moment.

I'd love to see tighter civilian oversight of the military. that'd be awesome! but...its not going to happen any time soon. the Republicans would fight against it, the military itself is too gotdamn big right now to easily track and our culture seems to actually LIKE having corrupt intel agencies running the show. NONE of this is Obama's fault. it's merely the logical consequences of the Patriot act and an institutional blind spot towards how our intel agencies operate.

During the Bush administration, if a cat was run over by a mail truck in Baltimore, some moron would come on here and say "I blame Bush". Now we have major scandals rocking some of the biggest agencies in the government and you say "NONE of this is Obama's fault" You're carrying that Messiah worship a bit too far. It's time to see about a little intervention.

During the Bush administration, if a cat was run over by a mail truck in Baltimore, some moron would come on here and say "I blame Bush". Now we have major scandals rocking some of the biggest agencies in the government and you say "NONE of this is Obama's fault" You're carrying that Messiah worship a bit too far. It's time to see about a little intervention.

to be fair, Bush unleashed a lot of our current problems - he signed the Patriot Act. took a couple/few years for these issues to surface though. Bush stripped a LOT of civilian oversight out of this process. Congress helped of course. And the corporate press hammered home the message that these measures were necessary for 'national defense'. People stopped paying attention, and the military (and all our intel agencies really) learned that they had very few restrictions on how they could operate.

Now we're seeing that this permissive and secretive culture is breeding bad leaders. well no shiat - what did you THINK was going to happen? in order to fix that sort of situation, Obama would have to completely rebuild several US intelligence agencies....and he doesn't have that sort of political capital. NOBODY has that sort of political capital. I"m sure this director is going to be ordered to fall on her sword. which she will do. then she'll retire and be moved off stage. Obama will say the matter is closed, the NRO will close ranks and the abuses will silently continue with the public none the wiser. you can biatch about that if you'd like...but it really wouldn't matter who's in the white house when it comes to this sort of organization. we've given the spies damn near unlimited power and I don't know how we're ever going to stuff them back into the box.

My first thought was more along the lines of "They should have come to me before they went to you," which is what she backpedalled to. But, from the rest of the article, it looks like that was BS anyway.

I have no remorse for a commander that lets stuff slide like that. And she's actually lucky that the whistle-blowers did what they should do and went to the IG instead of the press. (Not that it stopped the story from getting out)

What's the first reaction of the National Reconnaissance Office deputy director, an Air Force major general, upon learning she had four whistleblowers reporting illegal activity? "I would like to find them and fire them"

dittybopper:Consider this: General Mashiko is in charge of the organization that is tasked with preventing the next Pearl Harbor, and she is of Japanese descent.

She was commissioned as a butter bar back in 1980, and assuming she was 22 years old at the time, she'd have been born sometime around 1958. That means it's entirely possible that her parents spent time in an internment camp.

During the Bush administration, if a cat was run over by a mail truck in Baltimore, some moron would come on here and say "I blame Bush". Now we have major scandals rocking some of the biggest agencies in the government and you say "NONE of this is Obama's fault" You're carrying that Messiah worship a bit too far. It's time to see about a little intervention.

to be fair, Bush unleashed a lot of our current problems - he signed the Patriot Act. took a couple/few years for these issues to surface though. Bush stripped a LOT of civilian oversight out of this process. Congress helped of course. And the corporate press hammered home the message that these measures were necessary for 'national defense'. People stopped paying attention, and the military (and all our intel agencies really) learned that they had very few restrictions on how they could operate.

Now we're seeing that this permissive and secretive culture is breeding bad leaders. well no shiat - what did you THINK was going to happen? in order to fix that sort of situation, Obama would have to completely rebuild several US intelligence agencies....and he doesn't have that sort of political capital. NOBODY has that sort of political capital. I"m sure this director is going to be ordered to fall on her sword. which she will do. then she'll retire and be moved off stage. Obama will say the matter is closed, the NRO will close ranks and the abuses will silently continue with the public none the wiser. you can biatch about that if you'd like...but it really wouldn't matter who's in the white house when it comes to this sort of organization. we've given the spies damn near unlimited power and I don't know how we're ever going to stuff them back into the box.

Should they be reboxed? Are the cloak and dagger boys more dangerous or less dangerous freelancing in the name of America then they are marching to the orders of suits and smiles types?

BillCo:Just more proof that the agencies under the Obama administration are out of control.

Yup. And unlike with Shrub, this isn't the result of mismanagement, incompetence, and widespread tolerance for graft; rather, the "ok" for showing disdain for legal limits and transparency is a message they are receiving straight from the top. I concede my leftist credentials to no one, but Mr. Obama has been positively atrocious on these issues, and a willingness to admit that shouldn't be a test of political loyalty.

Englebert Slaptyback:What's the first reaction of the National Reconnaissance Office deputy director, an Air Force major general, upon learning she had four whistleblowers reporting illegal activity? "I would like to find them and fire them"

BillCo:During the Bush administration, if a cat was run over by a mail truck in Baltimore, some moron would come on here and say "I blame Bush". Now we have major scandals rocking some of the biggest agencies in the government and you say "NONE of this is Obama's fault" You're carrying that Messiah worship a bit too far. It's time to see about a little intervention.

Bush has a history of being drunk and high, so it could have been him driving the mail truck.

When Obama does anything close to the same league as ignoring warnings about a major terrorist attack and then starting an unnecessary and unjustified war, then you can whine. But you'll probably whine anyway.

Weaver95:"Four directors went to the IG," the inspector general quoted Mashiko as saying to a senior officer. "I would like to find them and fire them."

I wish I could say I was surprised at this.....

*sigh*

when you remove oversight from military organizations (specifically - intelligence operations) as we did when we started this whole 'war on terror' thing, you are going to get people who abuse their authority.

What really spooks me is just how much of our intelligence work has been privatized. Those "Top Secret America" articles the Washington Post ran were chilling (and infuriating).

aseras:Englebert Slaptyback: What's the first reaction of the National Reconnaissance Office deputy director, an Air Force major general, upon learning she had four whistleblowers reporting illegal activity? "I would like to find them and fire them"

She'll be promoted to Lt. Colonel for this.

She's a Major GENERAL dumbass. She's got 2 stars.

You must be completely unfamiliar with how the military works there SKIPPY. I mean you're a Hard CORE farker...you should know better....and to boot your scarcasm meter is broken./double dumbass

BillCo:Weaver95: BillCo: Just more proof that the agencies under the Obama administration are out of control.

Obama passed the Patriot Act...? wow. I didn't know he had a time machine.

Weav, you old dog. I knew you were an ultra lefty liberal, but I didn't realize until now that you are also obtuse. I was referring to the complete lack of leadership that Obama has displayed to the agencies under him. This is just one more example of weak leadership.

But then, what can you expect from a community organizer with no real experience.

It's not an example of weak leadership at all; prosecuting whistle-blowers is one of the things the Obama admin has been most fanatical about. If anything, this is an example of how successful the Obama admin can be at shifting bureau priorities on issues it genuinely cares about, contra their protestations regarding financial/mortgage fraud investigations and the pursuit of a public option in healthcare.

During the Bush administration, if a cat was run over by a mail truck in Baltimore, some moron would come on here and say "I blame Bush". Now we have major scandals rocking some of the biggest agencies in the government and you say "NONE of this is Obama's fault" You're carrying that Messiah worship a bit too far. It's time to see about a little intervention.

to be fair, Bush unleashed a lot of our current problems - he signed the Patriot Act. took a couple/few years for these issues to surface though. Bush stripped a LOT of civilian oversight out of this process. Congress helped of course. And the corporate press hammered home the message that these measures were necessary for 'national defense'. People stopped paying attention, and the military (and all our intel agencies really) learned that they had very few restrictions on how they could operate.

Now we're seeing that this permissive and secretive culture is breeding bad leaders. well no shiat - what did you THINK was going to happen? in order to fix that sort of situation, Obama would have to completely rebuild several US intelligence agencies....and he doesn't have that sort of political capital. NOBODY has that sort of political capital. I"m sure this director is going to be ordered to fall on her sword. which she will do. then she'll retire and be moved off stage. Obama will say the matter is closed, the NRO will close ranks and the abuses will silently continue with the public none the wiser. you can biatch about that if you'd like...but it really wouldn't matter who's in the white house when it comes to this sort of organization. we've given the spies damn near unlimited power and I don't know how we're ever going to stuff them back into the box.

We get it. Anything that goes wrong during Obama's term is all George Bush's fault and anything that goes right is 100% credited to Obama.

dittybopper:Consider this: General Mashiko is in charge of the organization that is tasked with preventing the next Pearl Harbor, and she is of Japanese descent.

She was commissioned as a butter bar back in 1980, and assuming she was 22 years old at the time, she'd have been born sometime around 1958. That means it's entirely possible that her parents spent time in an internment camp.

Weaver95:Obama would have to completely rebuild several US intelligence agencies....and he doesn't have that sort of political capital. NOBODY has that sort of political capital.

But the kicker is that you can't even TALK ABOUT these agencies because they're all TOP SECRET. And what they do is TOP SECRET. Plus all the documents telling what they do are TOP SECRET and all of their employees are gagged under threat of severe federal penalties including fines and imprisonment for even discussing their jobs or how to improve them with anyone without a security clearance. The agencies are like ticks -- embedded and permanent. Most of what Homeland Security does is classified, as well.The is no better way to steal money than to tuck it away behind security classifications.

BillCo:Weaver95: BillCo: Just more proof that the agencies under the Obama administration are out of control.

Obama passed the Patriot Act...? wow. I didn't know he had a time machine.

Weav, you old dog. I knew you were an ultra lefty liberal, but I didn't realize until now that you are also obtuse. I was referring to the complete lack of leadership that Obama has displayed to the agencies under him. This is just one more example of weak leadership.

But then, what can you expect from a community organizer with no real experience.

Maybe if Congress would actually hold confirmation votes for appointees. That was the isse with Fast and the Furious, there was no agency head because the Republicans refused to allow confirmation. Thus, a clusterfark resulted. I remember reading at the time that there were like 20 agencies with no heads because of the Senate confirmation issue.

You can't have effective government without Top. Men. Which was the point of the confirmation boycott. Mission accomplished, government is now more screwed up and centralized than before, so the authoritarians like Cheney can cheer while Obama takes the hits on Congress' sabotage of the government.

ImpendingCynic:BillCo: During the Bush administration, if a cat was run over by a mail truck in Baltimore, some moron would come on here and say "I blame Bush". Now we have major scandals rocking some of the biggest agencies in the government and you say "NONE of this is Obama's fault" You're carrying that Messiah worship a bit too far. It's time to see about a little intervention.

Bush has a history of being drunk and high, so it could have been him driving the mail truck.

When Obama does anything close to the same league as ignoring warnings about a major terrorist attack and then starting an unnecessary and unjustified war, then you can whine. But you'll probably whine anyway.

Obama did take us into an unnecessary and unjustifiable war. It was just over in a couple months and no Americans died so liberals are OK with it.

Weaver95:BillCo: Just more proof that the agencies under the Obama administration are out of control.

Obama passed the Patriot Act...? wow. I didn't know he had a time machine.

Nope, but he did push for and sign a 4 year extension of it instead of letting it expire.

Don't need a time machine when you choose to continue the thing with your own hand...

FWIW: this is not a new thing, nor have Govt officials been going after whistleblowers specifically during this administration. However, they've been far more public and blatant about it during the past few years than they have before.

Ned Stark:ImpendingCynic: BillCo: During the Bush administration, if a cat was run over by a mail truck in Baltimore, some moron would come on here and say "I blame Bush". Now we have major scandals rocking some of the biggest agencies in the government and you say "NONE of this is Obama's fault" You're carrying that Messiah worship a bit too far. It's time to see about a little intervention.

Bush has a history of being drunk and high, so it could have been him driving the mail truck.

When Obama does anything close to the same league as ignoring warnings about a major terrorist attack and then starting an unnecessary and unjustified war, then you can whine. But you'll probably whine anyway.

Obama did take us into an unnecessary and unjustifiable war. It was just over in a couple months and no Americans died so liberals are OK with it.

I'm certainly not ok with it. And I think you're forgetting Yemen; a war we're fighting, with boots on the ground, that nobody seems to want to talk about.

miss diminutive:"Given the lack of transparency over intelligence operations, we can't go on the word of agency officials that everything is fine," said one official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. "There needs to be a neutral and outside review of what's going on."

Conducted by TMZ and the National Inquirer?

The employees went to the Inspector General. The person they're supposed to report wrongdoing to. Their boss wants to equate this with leaking to the press and a crime.

Obama's been so anti-whistleblower he probably would have prosecuted 95-year-old Mark Felt (Deep Throat) if Felt hadn't died before Obama took office.

Nem Wan:miss diminutive: "Given the lack of transparency over intelligence operations, we can't go on the word of agency officials that everything is fine," said one official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. "There needs to be a neutral and outside review of what's going on."

Conducted by TMZ and the National Inquirer?

The employees went to the Inspector General. The person they're supposed to report wrongdoing to. Their boss wants to equate this with leaking to the press and a crime.

Obama's been so anti-whistleblower he probably would have prosecuted 95-year-old Mark Felt (Deep Throat) if Felt hadn't died before Obama took office.

dittybopper:Nem Wan: miss diminutive: "Given the lack of transparency over intelligence operations, we can't go on the word of agency officials that everything is fine," said one official, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. "There needs to be a neutral and outside review of what's going on."

Conducted by TMZ and the National Inquirer?

The employees went to the Inspector General. The person they're supposed to report wrongdoing to. Their boss wants to equate this with leaking to the press and a crime.

Obama's been so anti-whistleblower he probably would have prosecuted 95-year-old Mark Felt (Deep Throat) if Felt hadn't died before Obama took office.

During the Bush administration, if a cat was run over by a mail truck in Baltimore, some moron would come on here and say "I blame Bush". Now we have major scandals rocking some of the biggest agencies in the government and you say "NONE of this is Obama's fault" You're carrying that Messiah worship a bit too far. It's time to see about a little intervention.

This culture of asshatedness did not move in recently.This crap is all too much "business as usual" by self agrandizing farkups up and down the military ladder.

Playing the Divided and Conquered card is partisanship gone off the rails and serves no purpose.POUS is in office, not power when it comes to military.